Maddie & Tae Detail Their ‘Intense’ New Project: ‘It’s About As Honest As We’ve Ever Been’

Maddie & Tae continue to share their stories of raw vulnerability in their new collection of songs, Through The Madness Vol. 2.

The country duo made up of Maddie Font and Taylor Kerr got their start by performing in small bars and restaurants, where sometimes, they wouldn’t even have an audience to listen to their music. Although they have come far since then, these memories will always be a part of their journey. 

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“I go back to the very beginning of our career when Maddie and I had just met we’re like, can we make this into like our career? I don’t know. Is that crazy?” Tae told Country Now and other outlets. “Just the thought of it actually happening and how rare that is makes me feel very blessed.”

When they did start to make some headway in the music industry, Maddie & Tae were still working on discovering themselves and trying to find the message they wanted to share with the world, if they ever got the chance to. As their career began to develop further and their lives started to be showcased in the limelight, the pressures to appear happy at all times weighed on them because they were going through struggles like everyone else. 

Finally, they realized that keeping those tough moments to themselves was doing more harm than good for both them and their fans. 

“As time went on and the more trials that we went through and overcame, it became really obvious to us that maybe our purpose was to write through it and to release that music and to maybe help people going through other stuff,” they said. 

This new project is a perfect example of how far they’ve come from that time of uncertainty because with this set of music, they dive into the ups and the downs while also showing confidence in knowing what they deserve in life.

Their empowering vocals radiate throughout the entirety of Through The Madness Vol. 2 as they face their demons head-on and celebrate their emotional progress in real-time.

The latest eight tracks follow the first half, Through The Madness Vol. 1, which was released earlier this year.

The difference between the two projects is the depth at which they deliver their more “serious and somber topics,” as Tae explained.

“It’s kind of intense, but in a good way. I mean, it’s about as honest as we’ve ever been and I think fans are gonna like that.”

The first set of songs serves as a “warm-up,” according to Maddie who shared, “Volume two is like, ‘all right, we’re in it. We are in the trenches together.’” 

The project has something for everything you’re experiencing in life, from painful breakups to healthy relationships and everything in between. With songs like “These Tears,” this project allows you to cry and release all the emotions, but then, you’ll have to put the pieces back together and move on, and “Spring Cleaning,” will guide you through that. 

Co-written by Maddie & Tae alongside Josh Kerr and Tayla Parx, “Spring Cleaning” is the second single released of the project, following “Every Night Every Morning.” It serves as the last song on the track list. 

“It kind of feels like a fresh start. So to the next project, it’ll kind of be a nice little runway,” Maddie shared. 

The song was inspired by cleaning extraordinaire Marie Kondo and her motto of, if it doesn’t bring you joy, then get rid of it. The duo took this idea and ran with it, encouraging the difficult task of finally parting ways with the things in life that are holding you back, like a gift from a past relationship.

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“We just like made up this whole narrative of what that would look like, Marie Kondoing somebody. I’m like her name’s gonna be turned into a verb now after that song, but it’s just really fun. I feel like if you’ve ever gone through a breakup, you need that extra push to get rid of the things that aren’t serving you anymore.”

As they sing about cleaning out their homes and saying goodbye to the things taking up unnecessary space, Maddie & Tae exude sass and confidence, which then rubs off on their listeners.

“Some of our fans are like, ‘I finally got rid of the necklace that I’ve been holding onto for years’ or ‘I finally got rid of this because it doesn’t serve me.’ And I’m like, oh my gosh, that’s so powerful that a song can like help someone move on.”

Maddie showed her confidence in a slightly more somber way when she decided to add “These Tears” to the project. 

“I was sobbing, like completely sobbing while singing that and somehow, some way we got a whole live vocal, unedited, untouched, and just got a raw vocal from that day. It was really healing, but you know,I was a crybaby for like the whole six months of that song,” she said honestly.

After getting postponed not just once but twice, Maddie & Tae are finally hitting the road with their new songs for the All Song No Static tour presented by CMT Next Women of Country. This set of shows kicked off on Thursday (Sept. 15) in Oklahoma City, OK.

“The fact that our fans are still coming after that many postpone situations is incredible,” Maddie gushed.

As the current headliners, the duo is “honored” to serve as the role models to the special guest artists, Sacha and Abbey Cone in the same way that Carrie Underwood did for them in the past.

“I feel like just honored that we get to be kind of like Sasha and Abby’s Carrie, like what Carrie was to us, is what we’re hoping to be to them and to just be someone they can lean on in the beginning steps of their careers,” Maddie shared. “They’ve been at it for a long time time, but just the beginning of this part of it, getting to kind of be there for them and champion them.”

For the next stop on the All Song No Static Tour, Maddie & Tae will be performing in Baltimore, MD on Saturday (Sept. 24).